Amourshipping : Carless Words
by QuirkQuartz
Summary: Serena learns something very important, in a very hard way. You need to think about what you say before you say anything. Amourshipping, AASL, Ash X Serena


Serena flushed in embarrassment. She couldn't believe she had just let it blurt out like that! She felt like an absolute idiot. Like a complete and utter dunce. She wanted to hit herself. In fact, she had done, several times, hitting her frustrated fists against her stupid forehead, and the more she thought about such a stupid, stupid, stupid idiot she had been, the more she had hit herself, physically and mentally.

Confrontation by Clemont and Bonnie had been one of her most prominent fears for a long time. She had no idea what she would say, how she would ever manage to cover her tracks if they did ask. She had rehearsed it a thousand times, and she couldn't ever find an excuse that would sound plausible without telling them the truth. Right after Ash's Fletchinder had evolved from Talonflame, and that whole adventure with the Moltres did the two of them decide to finally question the blonde performer.

It had started out as any other conversation you would expect between friends. Serena had had a rough night that night, and Clemont had asked in concern how she was doing as he poured her a drink of Orange Juice to wake her up.

"What kept you up, anyway?" Clemont asked her, passing her the drink. She took it gently from him, still drowsy.

"I dunno..." Serena moaned, hardly even willing to move. It was a miracle she had even managed to get dressed she was so tired. "I Just... I dunno, I guess I was... Thinking?" She answered before taking a sip of her drink. She wasn't lying technically. She had been thinking that night. A lot. About Ash. How close it had been to being over for him that day. Yes she admired his selflessness to save Talonflame, but at the same time... She resented how selfless he was being lately. He never thought about himself. Never even considered himself. Self preservation didn't even seem to exist in him. And that night, Serena had found her hands shaking. She had nearly lost Ash. And there had been nothing she could have done to stop him. And suddenly, she didn't know what to do. She didn't know what she wanted. She certainly didn't want Ash to get himself killed, but she didn't want him to stop being him either. She had no idea what she really wanted him to do, but she knew for a fact she didn't want him getting himself hurt or killed.

"Oh?" Clemont asked, sitting directly opposite her. He raised an eyebrow quizzically, as he too a sip of his own drink.

"Uh huh..." Serena said with a sight, sipping her own drink again.

"Was it about Serena's precious Ashy?" Bonnie chimed in, sending a massive jolt of electricity directly up Serena's spine and shocking her upright. She had come a fraction of a movement away from spraying the liquid she had just taken to her mouth all over the poor blonde gym leader, but managed to catch it again in her now scarlet red cheeks. Quickly swallowing the liquid, and taking the cold glass and placing it against her red hot cheeks, she stuttered to find words. "Wh - What do.. Wha - wha?..."

Clemont sighed. "You couldn't have been more subtle, Bonnie?"

Bonnie giggled. "Oh come on big brother! If I figured it out then why do we need to be subtle? The only person who doesn't know is dense and still asleep."

Serena felt her heart pounding against her rib cage. She clutched at her chest, trying to force her heart to stop. Her face completely crimson, and practically steam evaporating from her, she struggled to find words. "F - Figure out... Out what?"

Bonnie giggled again, teasing her older sister figure. "You knoooow~"

Serena went even redder, somehow, yet feigned ignorance still. "I-I really don't know what you mean, B-Bonnie!"

Clemont sighed. "Well, looks like we're doing this now then." He then looked at Serena, dead serious. "Look, this isn't healthy for you, Serena. We've known for months now, so you don't need to hide it from us. Neither of us think less of you for it."

"For what?" Serena asked, quieter now, realising entirely that her act of ignorance was about to fall apart really quickly."

"You like Ash. We both know it, Serena." Clemont said, coming right out with it.

Serena's face exploded with bright red colours Clemont wasn't even aware could appear on a blushing persons face. If her word acting had convinced them, her red face had completely given her away. "Hey now, no need to be so embarrassed about it Serena."

"I-I-I'm not embarrassed because you're wrong!" She said unconvincingly, stuttering and avoiding eye contact with the blonde twins.

"Serena, it's not healthy for you to keep this all pent up. You're in distress, we can all see that. And you're loosing sleep. He means the world to you, it's obvious."

Serena blushed. "Am I really that easy to read?..."

Clemont sighed and smiled warmly. "When you've been around someone as long as we have been around you, yes."

Serena sighed and just decided to admit it to them. "Okay then, I'll admit it." She said, in a louder voice than usual. She was trying to shove this whole conversation under the rug, so they could rapidly move on to conversations that weren't at her absolute torture.

Clemont's face seemed to pale as she said it, seemingly in shock at this unusual brash action. "Serena?"

"Fine, you got it out of me. I am in love with Ash! I'm past the crush stage at this point, I am in love with him! You happy?" She sat back down and drunk the rest of her drink downright, her face a bright red, hoping to move the conversation forward.

Both Clemont and Bonnies faces were pale. Serena raised an eyebrow, extremely irritated now. "What?"

In a second, it clicked. They were looking at her. They were looking past her. At something behind her. "Oh, please, God no..."

Serena turned slowly, absolutely dreading what was behind her. She kept begging God in her head to be wrong. Please, just let it be a Groudon completely demolishing the town. That she could handle. She had to brush her hair out of the way to be able to see what was behind her.

It really was worse than a Groudon.

It was Ash.

He had just come from around the corner, and had been stopped halfway through waving to the group by Serena's declaration of love towards him. His eyes had widened and his face had turn from neutrality to something somewhat shocked. His face conveyed initial withdrawal from the interaction entirely, followed by shock, pleasure, anger and confusion all at once. It was difficult to read.

Serena went a pure colour of scarlet - crimson red, and she reflexively jumped up out of her seat, her eyes widened , stood in front of the person she had secretly loved for all this time, and now had just blurted it out to him in quite possibly the worst way possible. Her thoughts were racing at two trillion miles a second. 'No, not Ash. Not like this. Anything but this! I'll take a Groudon, a Kyogre, a Zekrom, anything but this!"

"Uh..." Was all Ash could really say. He quickly looked left and right, looking for a way to back out of the conversation. Seeing nothing, he dropped all pretences. "I'll uh... I'll come back once you've finished your... Chat." And just like that, disappeared behind the wall he had appeared from.

Serena wanted to say something, make some excuse. But what excuse could she come up with that would be convincing enough? A game of truth or dare? That would seem like a very specifically weird dare, and an even more awkward truth. Slip of the tongue? How the heck would she be able to twist it in any other way than face value? She just sunk back into her seats and burrowed her head into her arms, truly fighting back tears. "Oh no..."

* * *

A few weeks later, things still had an awkward air about them. Clemont and Bonnie couldn't apologise heavily enough. They had apologised nearly every time they saw her. Serena had forgiven them fairly quickly, however, not holding it against them for more than a few hours. It was her own fault. It was herself she couldn't forgive for such an idiotic act.

Ash and Serena had still traveled together. They were still sociable, even friendly with each other, but there was a hanging sense of awkwardness hanging over them. Whenever he could, Ash steered clear of her in any additional interaction than he needed to have with her. He hadn't even asked Clemont or Bonnie about it, according to them. Either the concept was just beyond his comprehension, or he really didn't care whatsoever about what Serena felt for him.

The majority of her nights, Serena would sit up, awake in her room, cuddling tightly to a pillow. She wanted it to be Ash so badly, it felt like it was slowly strangling her. Each night, the pillow she slept with each night would always catch her tears for her.

It had been roughly three weeks since the incident, and things still hadn't eased up between the two. Serena had become distraught. She didn't know what to do. Her performance rehearsals had become sloppy and distracted, demoralising her further.

"Okay, Braixen, try a Fire Blast while you spin, and aim it into the sky." Serena suggested, trying to investigate results from vp various combinations that she could try and include in her performances.

Braixen obeyed her trainer, and performed the move with enthusiasm, hoping that it would rub off on her trainer, and bring back a spark in her. The move fired into the sky like a brilliant firework, bursting in the sky, leaving small fire sparks falling around Braixen, who ended her spin with grace.

Serena smiled. "That's not a bad move." She scribbled the idea briefly into a notepad she used when she wanted to refer back to moves she liked. "Nice work, Braixen."

Braixen smiled happily at her trainer, hoping it would lift her spirits. "Okay," Serena continued, "Try ending your spin with a jump and leg sweep. Maybe you could involve your twig in some way too... Maybe a bit like a baton." Serena suggested, coming up with ideas completely in the fly. She wasn't totally focused, but she was focused enough to know what she liked and what she could improve. "Just experiment."

Braixen started her routine again, twirling her twig like a circus master with skill and speed, she prepared to launch the attack again, determined to impress and invigorate her trainers spark further.

"Watch out below!"

Both trainer and Pokemon looked up in response to the warning, seeing a blue sphere of water falling for them and dropping fast. Their eyes practically jumped right out of their sockets. Braixen found refuge in some of the brushes, while Serena had instinctively made a run in the opposite direction, still completely in range of the dropping sphere of water.

Before Serena was able to register it, she found herself with a jacket thrown over her and someone blocking her from the water as it washed over them both. Serena was protected relatively well by the jacket and individual who had shielded her. The individual, however, was soaked head to toe.

It took Serena only a few seconds to realise this was Ash's jacket. And even less time to realise that Ash was the one who had shielded her from the water. He stood in front, a half amused half irritated face on him. He let out a sigh. "Sorry about that. You okay Serena? You're not soaked are you? I know you really hate that." He asked, shaking the water from his arms onto the floor.

"Um... Just a little damp. I'm fine." Serena answered, holding up Ash's soaked blue jacket for him. He took it and squeezed it as dry as he could. "Uh... What was that?"

At just that moment, Frogadier leapt down from the rooftops of the centre, and began scouring the brush for Braixen. Eventually he found her, somewhat soaked, and looking very irritated. Frogadier kept bowing in apology, which Braixen, still annoyed, just waved it off, with what Serena could have sworn was a hint of pink in her Pokèmons face.

"Training. I wanted Frogadeir to try launching Water Pulse into the air and seeing what happened..." Ash said with a embarrassed smiled. "And uh... Well, let's just say I think complicated moves definitely aren't my Pokèmons strong suit. We'll leave that to you." Ash said kindly to the performer, wiping his face of water.

"You know, you didn't need to shield me." Serena said. "Its only water. Yeah, I'd have been annoyed, but don't you think you shielding me was a little... Dramatic?"

Ash shrugged. "Well... It was our fault that Water Pulse would have drenched you. Seemed only fair I prevented it."

Serena smiled, not realising it was one of the first times she had smiled around Ash in a while. "How chivalrous of you."

Ash showed her his trademark toothy grin, chuckling to himself as he did so. Serena was reminded of how he he was before she had blurted out her stupid confession. She smiled back at him. It was nice. It was like the good old days.

"This is... Like before... It's... Nice." She said to herself, quietly. Ash heard her. It quickly brought back the awkward sense that had been hanging over the two of them. It reminded the two of them the awkwardness that had been between them. For just a few moments, they had forgotten about it completely. Now they remembered.

"Y-Yeah." Ash forced himself to say with a stretched smile, not exactly sure how to respond to that. He had almost forgotten about the whole thing.

Serena blushed. She wanted to say something. Anything. Just something to break the tension. But the words just wouldn't form, so she ended up just looking like an idiot. She suddenly wished she hadn't said a word. She had been handed a chance to restart everything, erase the awkwardness that had swept over the two like a suffocating blanket, and she had just destroyed it.

* * *

Serena flushed in embarrassment. She couldn't believe she had just let it blurt out like that! She felt like an absolute idiot. Like a complete and utter dunce. She wanted to hit herself. In fact, she had done, several times, hitting her frustrated fists against her stupid forehead, and the more she thought about such a stupid, stupid, stupid idiot she had been, the more she had hit herself, physically and mentally.

Hiding away in her room that evening, she had hid her face in her hands and occasionally hit herself with her hands. She had to fight back tears with all the strength she had in her.

"Why can't I just keep quiet?..." She asked herself, hey eyes swelled with tears, but she fought back as hard as she could, determined not to let a single tear fall. "Why?..."

Her vision blurred, she looked at the roof, hoping that would keep her tears from falling. "I... I don't know what to do..."

At that moment, Serena heard a knock on her door. Quickly shaking her tears out of he eyes, she answered. "Who is it?" Her voice cracked during her answer, but she hoped whoever it was wouldn't notice.

"Serena? It's Ash. We... Need to talk."

"Ash?" She questioned to herself. Quickly, she dried her eyes, re-straightened out her bed, and made herself look something presentable. "I-I'll just be a second."

* * *

Three weeks ago, Ash had over heard Serena's 'confession' to Clemont and Bonnie. He had had no idea how to react, so he had simply withdrawn from the interaction altogether, hiding behind the wall he had just come from. He had no idea how to process the information himself.

"Serena... Is..." He couldn't even out the next few words into the sentence. He couldn't explain what he was feeling right now. He was mostly confused, that much was certain. But he always felt other emotions. One that stood out was... Well... Joy. He couldn't explain why, again, but he felt... Happy.

Ash wasn't used to the idea of romance. He never really had been. It just hadn't really register in his system yet. But... The more he thought about it...

Before Ash got any further in his own thoughts, he felt his cheeks heating up. A rarity for him, he was blushing. The fact he was blushing embarrassed him, which only made him blush further.

The more he thought about it, the more he realised Serena seemed to blush. And she did so quite frequently. Before Ash knew it, he found himself rewinding though out their journey, and all the signs she had shown of this revelation. The more obvious it became. And the more Ash thought, the more he realised.

Something was there. He didn't know what, but something, buried, something that hadn't been nurtured, but had survived for a very long time, still laid there, dormant. Like a spark. Well, more like a jolt when Ash finally realised what it was. Once he realised it, it felt like it had been there forever.

It was love.

The more Ash focused on this spark he had found, the more it seemed to overtake his thinking. Over the next three weeks, he had felt it better to give Serena her space, finally understanding all those moments she was always embarrassed about. And it was because of him. He kind of felt guilty. He had caused her so much embarrassment, even pain and upset, without realising it. He didn't know if he could be blamed for it directly, but he felt responsible.

Ash was happy to just go to how things were before. That was just how he was. He didn't let the embarrassment or awkwardness hang over him for very long. He quickly got over it and was able to organise his thoughts.

Serena on the other hand, hadn't. That was part of why Ash had let her be. But he could see visibly she was falling deeper and deeper into depression. She had stopped caring so much on how she looks. She always liked to look her best, but she was letting herself slip in that regard. And she seemed to shy away from things much quicker, especially when it involved him, specifically. Ash took these as bad signs.

The final straw for him was when she finally had some happiness, just speaking to him had been enough to make her happy. But she said something she hadn't meant to, and went right back to her reclosed self.

Ash couldn't take it any longer. He couldn't watch this person, one of his childhood friends, someone he had realised these emotions for, keep heading on this road to self destruction. Not while he could do something about it.

All it would take was 30 seconds of courage. Very embarrassing courage, but courage nonetheless. Once Ash decided, he sighed.

This was not gonna be fun.

* * *

"You okay in there, Serena?" Ash asked, after Serena hadn't responded for a couple of minutes.

"Y-Yeah." Serena replied, making her way quickly to the door, unlocking it, and opening it to let Ash in. She had quickly straightened anything that looked to be out of place, but had done such a hast job of it, it was clear she had attempted to hide the manifestation of her inner turmoil, to anyone who looked closely enough, anyway.

Serena stood in the doorway, blocking Ash from entering initially. "Um... What's up?"

Ash raised an eyebrow, briefly scanning the room, before refocusing onto Serena. "Like I said, we need to talk."

"A-About what?" Serena asked, concerned. Fearing the worst, she wanted this conversation to be as brief as possible.

Ash glanced left and right, checking that the corridor was clear, before turning back to Serena. "Uh... Can I come in? It's sorta... Personal."

Serena gulped, and stood to the side, allowing Ash to enter. Once he had, she slowly shut the door. The anticipated situation was not one she wanted to be in.

Ash glanced around the room a second time, noticing all the minor imperfections Serena usually never left. Like her unmade bed, her bag tossed casually at the side of the bed. At first glance, it wasn't anything you'd expect to be off, but it was just these tiny things that Serena usually never let slide that Ash noticed easily.

"Um... Can we... Make this quick please?" Serena asked, biting the inside of her lower lip. She wasn't sure if she just never wanted to hear it, or if she just wanted it to be done with so she could be alone again.

"Uh, right, sure..." Ash said, hesitantly. "... About that... Incident a few weeks back..."

Serena bit her lip so blood nearly came out. This was it.

Ash sighed. "I don't... Normally do emotional things... You know my mind process; Go somewhere, battle someone, train, eat, train more, sleep, repeat. I don't usually... Have these kinds of talks... Or... Really acknowledge much else...

I can't... claim... To know everything about what you said, how long it had been, what is was like keeping that all tucked away inside like that... I can't even imagine what it would be like to hold that all inside for so long." Ash said, trying to find the words to try and get his point across. He felt awkward saying all of this. Like he was doing something wrong. To Serena, it was like he was making a grand apology.

"What I do know now... Is that you've been hurting for... A really long time... What I've realised throughout these last few weeks is..." Ash let out a sigh. "From how things have changed... I learnt that I never realised just how much I liked things being how they were. When you and I could just... Talk, and be friends like we used to be... But that can't happen now."

To Serena, this was like a stab to the heart. She looked at the floor, her hat hiding the tears that was were forming in her eyes. "I... See..."

"Because... You... Confessed like that... I was...shocked. I... I hadn't been forced to think about you that way before. I don't think I would have been able to give you the answer I want to give you if you had just said it to me face to face." Ash said, oblivious to how Serena felt at the current moment. Serena felt her heart shattering. "Serena... I... I've thought a lot about it... And... I can't see you destroy yourself like this anymore..."

Ash lifted her chin up, only now seeing the tears in her eyes now. Taken slightly aback by this, he paused in his big confession, unaware that his choice of words had broken the blonde performer to tears.

"It's... Okay... Ash..." She managed to say, holding the tears back. Trying to find the words, but letting them get stuck in her throat. She had already accepted it, her rejection. She wanted to tell Ash she understood, that she could handle it, but she just couldn't do it. Because she just couldn't handle it.

Ash managed to smile lightly at the girl in front of him. "Hey, at least let me finish before you start crying." He wiped the tears from her eyes, which were only replaced almost immediately. He lightly smiled at her again. "I... Think you've misunderstood me here."

"Huh?"

"Serena..." Ash said, sighing once more, with a lighthearted smile. "You've... Forced me to think about things I normally wouldn't. Like I said, I'm not usually an emotional guy. But... After hearing what you said... I... Did feel something. And..." Ash bit his tongue as he spoke. It was time to bite the bullet and come right out with it. "Serena... It was love."

Tears ran down Serena's cheeks, as she stared at Ash, her eyes widened.

"Serena... I... I'm... I love you back." Ash said, his own face red at this point. "I like having you around. I love seeing you smile, laughing, being happy... And... It's just not the same with you like you are. I want to see the Serena I remember again. I... Want to see the Serena I fell in love with from so long ago, I can't even remember when."

Ash was suddenly tackled into the tightest hug of his life, by a red Serena who was crying her eyes out, loudly, and burying her head into his shoulder. Ash held on for a second, before holding the bawling girl close to him, wrapping his arms around her. He smiled warmly, snuggling himself into the hug. Serena didn't care how stupid she looked right now. Her happiness couldn't be at a higher peak. And Ash felt the same way. He held her close. He'd comfort her until she needed no more.

* * *

Sorry for a lack of updates, so, I've got this one for you all today!

So, I have a few things to talk about in this section today. The first of all being, my YouTube channel is changed. I now have a Channel called TheGamingEmpire. To give you specifics, it has the same OC trainer in the centre, and all of the videos, along with other game and anime protagonists alongside it. How many of you'd watch me playthrough a Pokemon game? Or make it a rom hack perhaps? Be sure to subscribe if you wanna.

And as for fanfics... Soon, Alone will end, and I'm going to start a new project I'm working on. This one will be called "Loyalty", based around the one quality I value above everything else. To me, loyalty is the most important thing anyone can possess. I like to think of myself as being fiercely loyal as a person. It's important to me because of my ex, and how I essentially got abandoned by her. What I learned from that whole experience is that the people who can't, or won't, stand by you until the end in life aren't the kinds of people you need in life. I consider myself to be loyal nearly to a fault. I don't care for the stereotypes, but the people who I genuinely think saved me are a select few close friends solely from the Internet, and you guys. I owe you all my life, and it upsets me to a point that I can't ever repay my debt to you all. So, I want to make the best Amourshipping fanfic out there, in honour of the value that is loyalty.

And now, for something completely unexpected - Fondantshipping. Or, Puffycrustshipping, however you call it. Probably better known as Serena X Miette. Yes, this is a thing, and yes, I genuinely ship this. You'd be surprised, it took a couple of pictures on Pixiv from a friend and I'm Fondant trash. And the same friend requested a story, because apparently they don't exist on the net. So, looks like I'll have to spark it. Don't worry, Amour is still my OTP, but I'm kinda shocked by how much I like Fondantshipping. I kinda like the idea of doing a few yuri fanfics on here. If nothing else, it'll be a good experiment. (Please don't leave me ;n;) More Amourshipping one shots will show up soon, so don't worry ^_^

So yeah, that's that sorted. Hope you enjoyed the fanfic here. If you did, you know the drill, favourite and review to let me know. It makes my day when I wake up to find 10+ notifications on Outlook from you guys, no matter how much it makes me cringe or put the phone down In embarrassment. It truly does.

At any rate, I had best wrap this up. Hope you all enjoyed, and I'll see you in the next chapter of whatever i make next. See ya! ^_^


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